Ministering for the Lord in Brazil

“He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground;
A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.” Psalm 107:33, 34

Dear Friends,

The Drought

Large parts of Brazil are undergoing the worst drought in many decades. The Northeast has had terrible drought for a few years and now the populous Southeast is in bad shape. Many cities, including São Paulo, are rationing water and many other places depend on trucks delivering water.

“He turneth rivers into a wilderness” – The largest reservoir system supplying the city of São Paulo was recently down to 3% of capacity (see above).

“watersprings into dry ground” – Where we live is the Atlantic Rain Forest, but many of our neighbors’ wells have dried up. They have trucks delivering water and also are going to the local creek to get water. Praise the Lord we personally still have water in our well.

“a fruitful land into barrenness” – This has happened to large areas of the Northeast where some say that now they have a “green drought.” There has finally been just enough rain to make things somewhat green but not enough to fill the reservoirs and wells.

“for the wickedness of them that dwell therein” – There is no doubt that God is dealing with Brazil through this drought. Immorality and crime are rampant even though everyone is religious. We will put an article in our next issue of The Fundamentalist pointing out the hand of God in this. Pray that God will work in the hearts of the people of Brazil through the drought and also that He will be pleased to give us rain and water in our wells.

The Fundamentalist

As I have mentioned before, we send out our newspaper loose in the mail. We believe this increases greatly the readership along the way and also gives us less work and expense. We have often thought that people working in the Postal Service can read some of The Fundamentalist as it passes through their hands. Ken personally sorted mail for many years and often read a few lines in passing. It is hard for something not to catch the eye at times. In August we received a letter from one of these mailmen: “I am a letter carrier of the city of Fortaleza. Yesterday, in one of my deliveries, I perceived in the newspaper The Fundamentalist the following phrase, “God never promised financial prosperity to all Christians.” I stopped the delivery and during some minutes lost myself in the reading. Fantastic, historical, and enlightening! I would like to receive this newspaper at my residence together with this issue, since I put it in the mailbox of the customer.

We are finishing up sending out the Spring issue. We have been increasing our mailing lists to send some issues to some of the more liberal churches to give them a witness and maybe a few papers will find some Bible believers that never separated from unbelief. We now have mailing lists of about 5,000 although we only send out 3,000 each time. We send every issue to our contacts and the churches that call themselves “Fundamentalists” and alternate mailings to the rest.

CIEF and ALADIC

There will be a meeting of CIEF in the Northeast in Patos, Paraiba on November 15. This will be the third time ever in the Northeast. The last two meetings were very well attended. The next ALADIC (Latin American Alliance) will be held in Recife from January 26 to 30. It has been 25 years since ALADIC has been in Brazil. The Fundamentalist Presbyterian Churches in the Northeast have become very active.

We will set up book and literature tables at these meetings as we try to do at all the meetings. Most of the books are in English and are sold for a nominal price. Many people here in Brazil know some English or are learning English. We regularly participate in an English Sunday School class in a local church and gave them some of their materials. We believe that a Colporteur ministry (selling Christian books) is always a good ministry.

Everyone reading this letter is invited to come to Recife in January. For details, write us.

Trip to the States

We visited the states for three weeks in September and October. We have to go back at least once a year for Ira’s green card. Immigration gave her a hard time this time saying that she cannot be staying out of the US more than she stays in the US. They say she needs to become a citizen, but the problem with that is that when applying she has to have been in the states for one and a half of the previous three years. We never got citizenship in the past because we had been told that it was not possible to have dual citizenship but now it seems it is possible. Pray for this visa problem.

We were able to attend presbytery in Collingswood and see Dr. Le Roy in Lancaster. We visited Luke at Clearwater Christian College for the first time, even though he is now a senior. Our son Matthew came for a visit with our granddaughter and his wife who is expecting. We spent time with our other three children and grandson living in Delaware (see picture below right).

We have been witnessing to our Roman Catholic neighbors and had the local Baptist church come over to hold a couple of church services in our house to which some of our neighbors came (see picture below left). On October 26 the Workers Party presidential candidate, Dilma Rousseff, was reelected for another four years. The logo of the Workers Party is the hammer and sickle.

Thanks again for all of your support and prayers.

In His Service,

Ken and Ira Olson

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One response to “Ministering for the Lord in Brazil”

Dear Ira,
I will be praying particularly for the possibility of dual citizenship for you.
I am assuming the Fundamentalistqa is published in Portuguese. Is it translated into Spanish? Or is there someone editing a Spanish Beacon anywhere in Latin America?
We have a little house in the mountains here in Panama that we visit two months of the year (Jan. & Feb.) and have great fellowship with a good Pastor here. Please let me know where I can get something in Spanish for him regularly; Pastor Ruben Ortega handles Le Eglesia Ebenezer in Chame (started for NTM misionaries), and we visit on alternate weeks while we’re here. He is visiting us for several days’ vacation this week.
Thank you for your faithfulenss; may His grace carry you both. We’re sorry to hear about the drought, but glad for the testimony.
Warmly in Jesus,
Regina Hoff (Nancy Anderson’s sister)